Embracing Chaos [3/4]
Harry followed Ash out of the bathroom with his face still bright red. They entered a warzone. Whilst they had been tucked away it seemed that Zarek had taken it upon himself to find every bit of smashable furniture or decoration in the place and...well...smash it.
Even some of the supposedly unbreakable stuff as well.
Ash stood looking at the destruction in alarm. "You know," he said conversationally, "the next door neighbours have probably already called the police, right?"
Harry rolled his eyes, then blinked and looked again. There, to the right, was a completely unharmed vase. He stared at it with wide eyes, not knowing how it had survived this far and not really caring. He slowly reached down and patted the ground around his feet, keeping his eyes on the piece of pottery. His fingers brushed against something wooden and he straightened up and swung it like a bat at the vase which shattered on impact, pieces flying across the room from the force of the blow.
There was silence and Harry looked up to see both Zarek and Ash looking at him with odd expressions.
"Oh, come on." He said, waving his makeshift bat (which turned out to be a chair leg) at them. "Why does Zarek get to have all the fun?"
"Harry." Ash sighed, "Did you just miss me getting Zarek to stop with the destruction because the police are likely on their way?"
"Er, yeah. Must have missed that."
"What are we going to tell them happened here?" Ash said in annoyance, spreading his arms wide to encompass the entire room which was now basically a box of wood splinters. "Oh yes office, we just decided to do some late night renovating. Nothing to be alarmed about.
"That'll go down well."
"Pssssh, Ash, you worry too much." Harry waved him off, "Just do your poofy magical fixer thing and all will be fine."
"I think you've still got a concussion." Ash deadpanned.
"Probably!" Harry chirped in agreement. "But that doesn't stop the fact that you can do your poofy magical fixer thing at the end."
Ash rolled his eyes, the corner of his lips twitching. "Fine."
"Wonderful!" Harry said brightly and clicked his fingers.
There was another silence.
"Is that..." Zarek said "a life-size sculpture of Artemis?"
"Made out of pottery." Harry agreed.
"It's remarkably accurate." Ash said uncertainly.
"Well yeah, it'd have to be. Apo- er...your mother is kinda picky about these things. It's even got her birthmark on. See? Don't ask me how I found out about that, please." Harry added when Ash shot him a startled look. "It's not something I want to scar myself with again."
There was silence.
"Well?" Harry said, "Have at it!"
"What?" Ash said as Zarek rushed forward with a war cry and rugby tackled the statue. "Wait," he said turning to Harry, "is this what you meant by giving my mother pottery to smash?"
"Well yeah," Harry said in bemusement, "what did you think I meant? Plates?"
"Um..."
"There's no fun in smashing plates when you could be grinding your heels into the faces of your enemies."
"I think I've got that now, thanks. But no, when you said busts I thought you meant...well...busts." He sighed at Harry's look of confusion. "You know? Something smaller?"
"But if it's smaller then it's less fun."
"Never mind."
Harry smiled and nodded, "So, any requests? Artemis is like...the number one on my list but I can do others. The Atlantian pantheon, most of the Greek pantheon...though for some reason I can't get Zeus' beard to come out right. Also, Apollo always looks like he's in the middle of spasming for some reason..."
Ash closed his mouth from where it had fallen open. "Um...just an Artemis for me."
"Sure thing!" And with a click of his fingers there was another Artemis statue standing in the middle of the room. "You want a bat or...?"
"I got this." Ash said darkly as he cracked his knuckles. "And keep them coming."
Harry nodded. "Riiight. Will do." Then clicked his fingers creating his own statue of a tall spindly looking man with no nose and a constipated look on his face. "Why hello there Tom," he said, tossing his bat between his hands "we meet again."
Smashing pottery sculptures into dust was harder work than they had originally thought and soon they had all shucked their shirts and were working up a nice sweat from all the exercise they were doing.
Then someone pounded on the door.
At once Harry, Zarek and Ash stopped what they were doing and looked up at the door, then at each other.
Ash shrugged, "Looks like the fun's over."
Harry grinned, out of breath, "Told - you."
Ash rolled his eyes. "Harry, go get that whilst I fix this."
"Orders - orders. You're not - supposed to - order me - around."
"Harry."
"Gone, I'm gone."
Harry opened the door to see two police officers there. The two from the alley. "Oh." He said, his eyes going wide.
They two officers looked at him in surprise, taking in his state of dress...or lack thereof and the sheen of sweat on his chest and the fact that he was panting.
They smirked. "Hello again."
"Um...hi." Harry said, desperately trying to get his breath back. It wasn't working.
The smirks morphed into grins, "We've received some reports of loud banging and shouting. Your neighbours seem to think that there's an argument going on."
"Oh no!" Harry denied quickly, "No argument. Just...celebrating being alive." He winced.
The police officer standing at the back snorted in amusement.
"NO!" Harry said panicking, "That came out wrong! We're not doing-"
"Harry?" Zarek asked stepping up behind him, "Who is it?"
"Oh yes," The officer at the front said, his partner choking on laughter, as he looked a half naked and sweaty Zarek up and down. "I see."
"No! No you don't!" Harry denied.
"Harry."
Harry just groaned and dropped his reddened face into his hands as he heard Ash come up behind them.
Both officers were laughing now. "Well, we can see you were busy..."
"Yes, we were." Zarek cut in.
"Just try to keep down the...celebrating...in the future. Some people need to sleep."
"It's not like that!" Harry said flustered, "We weren't...he's my nep-" He was cut off as Ash's hand clamped across his mouth.
"Sure thing officers, you have a good night now." Ash said with a smile as Harry tried to claw his hand away from his mouth.
"You too." The officer said with a grin as he dragged his laughing partner down the hallway.
Ash closed the door.
"What was that?" Harry practically yelled in frustration, "They now think we're having some sort of weird kinky threesome thing going on! I was only going to say that you were my nephew!"
"Yeah," Ash said blankly, "and then get taken in for incest."
Harry looked at Ash in horror before burying his face in Zarek's chest. "Make the images go away." He whimpered, "Do. Not. Want."
Zarek patted him on the back in consolation and leading him back to the miraculously restored sofa in the living room. As Harry seemed to be clinging to Zarek as if he was a teddy that could stave off the nightmares, Ash sat in the armchair opposite them.
"I think that it would be a good thing if Harry stayed with you for a while, Zarek. Especially after what the Daimon's did to Talon's house."
Harry's head shot up as he stiffened, Zarek shooting him an incomprehensible look. "Daimons?" Talon's house?"
Ash looked at him, "Yes, Daimons burnt down Talon's house." He frowned, "Don't you know this? Weren't you there?"
"Oh! Oh those Daimons." Harry laughed nervously.
"Yes." Ash deadpanned. "We think they were after you specifically and were sent by the people who seem to want to cause havoc lately."
Harry shifted, edging closer to Zarek. "Is...er...Talon mad?"
Ash sighed, "He was furious, but when we realised that it wasn't your fault and that you were missing he was worried about you."
"...ah."
"Fortunately," Ash continued, "I was able to help him fix up his house as an apology. After all, it never would have been burnt down if you weren't there."
"You got that right." Harry murmured quietly under his breath.
"Unfortunately I wasn't able to save his computers."
Harry's eyes widened.
"We think that the smoke and fire damage was too much for the hard drive. There's only so much I can do."
"Yeah...um - what about his crocodile thing?"
"Alligator."
"Whatever, what happened to it?"
"She."
"Is it alright?"
Ash nodded, "A bit singed around the edges but alive. She was also angry. We think she broke in as the building was on fire to attack the Daimons, or to save you."
"Oh that's...great..." Harry grimaced. Yeah, the vengeful alligator was alive and ready to eat him for destroying her master's house at any moment. "Great."
Ash nodded. "Now, about the next few days. Zarek, I want you to keep an eye on Harry for me. Now that we know he's definitely a target I want him safe until I can find and remove this threat."
"I'm not one of your lapdogs anymore."
"Please," Ash gritted out, "as a favour. If you won't do it for me then do it for him - he gave you your freedom."
"I had my freedom all along!"
"But you didn't know. Just think how many more years it would've taken for this to come to light, if it would have ever?
"If anything you owe him that. Please."
Zarek looked undecided for a moment as he glanced down to look at Harry and was assaulted by the biggest pair of puppy dog eyes he had ever seen.
"I don't want to die." Harry whispered.
Zarek groaned and slumped back. "Fine."
Ash grinned. "Wonderful. You don't have to stay in here. Go out, enjoy yourself. Just make sure he doesn't die...or gets captured."
"Yeah, yeah. I got it."
"Right." Ash said standing up and shooting an amused glance at Harry, who was still clinging to Zarek, with neither of them noticing. "Well, I'll be off. People to see, Daimons to kill and all that."
Harry nodded and waved at him. "Have fun!"
"Will do." Ash took one last look at Harry and Zarek on the sofa and, with a raised eyebrow, disappeared.
"That...was weird." Zarek said after a moment.
Harry turned back to face him and shuffled in closer. "What was?"
"Ash. He's...never like that."
"Like what?"
"You know...talking. Happy. Relaxed. Like a normal person. I think he even sounded English there for a second."
"Oh." Harry grinned, "He gets that from me!"
Zarek turned to him in confusion.
"There's only room for one weird person in our family, and that's me. Ash has to be the sane one now. And I'm also slowly indoctrinating him into the English way of life."
Zarek nodded, and then frowned. "What happened to all your other family members?"
"My sister killed them!"
Zarek's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "Ah. I see what you mean."
"Yes, being English rocks."
"What? No, that's-" Zarek just shook his head at Harry's confusion. "Yeah, sure. Whatever kid."
Harry pouted. "I'm not a kid. Have you already forgotten the part where I'm Ash's uncle and super powerful?"
"Yeah, 'cos I can see where being able to create replica pottery statues will be able to get you far."
Harry drew back, hurt. "I'm twenty three. Not a kid. And I am powerful."
"You can't be that powerful if Ash has been shipping you off to other Dark Hunter's." Zarek pointed out.
"That's for protection!"
"Because you can't protect yourself."
"No! It's...its extra protection. Because he's worried about me, because I haven't had much experience going up against gods."
"Because you're a kid."
"I'M NOT A KID!"
"Look," Zarek tried to reason with him, "It's not a bad thing. It just means that you need someone to look out for you."
Harry stood up and took two steps back, crossing his arms across his chest. "That's not true. I can take care of myself," he protested, willing his voice not to break but whether it was from feeling hurt or fury he was unsure, "I took out that Daimon by myself, didn't I?"
"Oh yes," Zarek said frustrated, "because losing control of your powers is one way to take them out."
There was silence as they stared at one another, not knowing just how the conversation had taken the turn to this.
"You don't have to be a dick about it." Harry said quietly.
"Kid, look-"
"My name is Harry." He hissed.
"Harry. Look-"
"I'm going to bed." Harry cut him off, turning and practically running out the room.
Zarek scrambled after him, "Harry!"
The sound of the bedroom door slamming shut cut him off and he turned and punched the wall beside him. "Damn it. What the hell just happened?"
Sighing, he slowly made his way to the bedroom door. He honestly had no clue what had just occurred. It had seemed that they had been getting on and then suddenly they were arguing over something stupid.
Needing someone to look after you wasn't a bad thing!
...unless you were all alone.
Zarek groaned and thumped his head against the door.
"Harry?" He tried. There was only silence. "Are you going to let me in?"
"No." Harry answered, his voice muffled through the door.
"You do realise this is my flat right?"
"Shut up and go away."
"You're being childish."
"Oh, well then," Harry hissed venomously, "isn't it lucky that you see me as nothing but a child."
"I didn't mean it like-"
"What a shock," Harry continued cutting Zarek off, "that I'm acting like one."
"Would you just-"
"Why are you even surprised then?"
"Harry! Would you let me explain?" Zarek shouted, slamming his fist against the wood so hard that it cracked right up the middle. Zarek eyed it warily.
There was silence.
"Can I come in?" He asked again once he had his temper under control.
"No."
Zarek gritted his teeth and grabbed the door knob. "Well that's just too bad, isn't it?"
With that he shouldered the door open, the crack widening under the force and splitting the door in two so that he was left holding half the door by the doorknob.
Throwing the half-door to one side he pushed into the room and rolled his eyes when he saw that Harry had curled up into a ball under his duvet.
Sighing he walked over and sat on the edge of the bed.
"Harry."
"Go away."
The voice came out muffled thanks to the covers so Zarek wasn't one hundred percent sure but he thought that Harry might have been crying.
"Are you crying?" He asked uncertainly.
Harry whipped off the covers and Zarek was met with a furious face that was, thankfully, dry. "No. Dickhead."
"That's good. I don't know how to deal with girly emotions."
Harry let out a short scream of rage and sat up properly. "You-you!" He stuttered, "Are the most-" He cut off with another scream of rage.
Zarek smirked.
"It's not girly to cry! Guys can cry! It's acceptable nowadays! And in any case I wasn't crying!"
"Kids cry too." Zarek pointed out calmly.
Harry lunged for him.
"Shut up! I'm not a kid! I can do stuff! I'M NOT USELESS!"
Zarek caught the fists that were heading to his face and twisted his body so that Harry's lunge followed though and they both ended up on the floor.
This he could deal with.
They grappled for a few minutes, tumbling over one another as they both tried to get the upper hand before Zarek's bigger build, strength and experience won out and he had Harry beneath him, wrists pinned above his head.
Harry struggled as hard as he could to get out of the hold but just couldn't seem to shake him off. After a few more moments the fight left his and he collapsed against the floor.
"I'm not useless, I'm not! I can help Ash out!"
Zarek nodded and inwardly winced at the pain in his jaw. Harry had managed to land a few lucky punches whilst they were wrestling and damn if the boy had a mean right hook.
"I don't know why he won't let me help. I've fought before. You can't have lived my life and not fought."
Zarek watched as Harry closed his eyes and his bottom lip began to tremble.
"Does he think I'm useless?" Harry whispered, and Zarek was unsure if he was supposed to be hearing this, "I don't want any more family to think I'm useless. Worthless. Freak."
Zarek growled at the last word, he didn't care if he wasn't supposed to be hearing this but the ki-Harry reminded him too much of his younger self right now and that just pissed him off.
"You're not worthless, or a freak. Who called you that? I'll tear them apart with my bare hands."
Harry's eyes shot open. "What?" He asked in disbelief.
Zarek leaned closer until their foreheads were pressed together and all he could see was green. "You're not any of those things. And Ash doesn't think that either."
"But-"
"No." Zarek cut him off. "Ash is terrified of losing you. You're his only family too."
Harry made a small noise of protest. "How can you even tell?"
"I can see it in his eyes." Zarek said hollowly, "Once you know what it feels like you can recognise it straight away."
Harry stared at him and Zarek sighed, leaning back until he was sitting on his heels between Harry's legs. "Look," he said running a hand though his hair, "I'm...sorry for what I said okay? I didn't mean most of it."
Harry propped himself up on his elbows carefully, "Then why did you say it?"
"I don't..." he trailed off with a noise of frustration, "I don't know."
Harry sighed and let himself fall back onto the floor, his face turned towards what was left of the door.
"You broke my door." He said after a moment.
Zarek barked out a laugh and stood up, holding out a hand to help Harry off the floor. "First off, this is my flat so I broke my door."
"Nu-uh" Harry stuck out his tongue and flopped onto the bed, rolling over so he was only taking up half of the double. He patted the space next to him in an invitation to Zarek. "Ash rented it, ergo, this is Ash's place, ergo, this is my place, ergo that is my door."
"Spoiled brat." Zarek said with a small smile as he lay down next to him.
"Yeah well," Harry said with a yawn, his eyes drooping, "shut up."
"So eloquent."
Harry grumbled and snuggled further into his pillow. Zarek rolled his eyes, feeling rather tired himself. He'd just lay here until he was sure Harry was completely asleep then he'd leave to his own room.